Bubblegum Lips
by Primrue
Summary: Remus Lupin likes chocolate, but finds bubblegum distracting. He doesn't mind the colour bubblegum-pink, though. One-shot, complete!


Bubblegum Lips

* * *

~o0o~

* * *

Pop!

Remus's hand jerked at the sound, but willed himself to continue writing all the same. He had a report to finish for the Order and he'd rather not spend his Saturday in the stuffy library of Grimmauld Place.

 _Surveyed the Granger house. No signs of hostile wizards or witches—_

Pop!

". . ."

 _—_ _and upon further inspection we gathered that the spells made for security measures remained intact and undisturbed—_

Pop!

His grip on his quill tightened, but kept going.

 _—_ _which led us to the conclusion that the Dark Lord does not appear to be after Miss Granger or her family—_

Pop!

 _—_ _at—_

Pop!

 _—_ _the—_

Pop!

 _—_ _moment—_

Pop!

"Miss Tonks, would you please go elsewhere if you're not going to contribute to the report!"

Nymphadora Tonks shrieked; startled off the armchair where she'd previously lounged, and her hair briefly shifted from a purple to a red and then back to purple again.

"Merlin, Remus," she said, getting up and began dusting off her robes. "If you're going to bite my head off at least give me a warning, yeah? Besides, you were the one telling me you'd be in charge of writing."

She looked up and spotted the older wizard looking utterly miserable.

"I apologize," he said, his eyebrows tightly knit together. "I shouldn't have lost my temper."

Tonks grinned and waved him off. "Nah, 's all right. Close to the full moon, I understand." When he remained sullen, she slowly sat herself down on the armchair and sent him what she hoped was an encouraging smile. "If you tell me what set you off, I'll try to avoid doing it in the future."

Remus started shaking his head, meaning to tell her that he was fine, but Tonks kept on talking.

"I've heard some say I talk too loud," she said, "was that it? Was that what set you off? With your hearing being enhanced that must be a nightmare. Although, I wasn't speaking. . .Or wait—don't tell me it's my breathing? I don't think I'm a mouth breather but maybe it's subconscious. Or perhaps it's my smell? Is it my smell? It is, isn't it? You poor soul! Here you are, with your sensitive nose, and I just smell up the place—"

Remus actually laughed at this. Tonks stopped talking and sent him a glare. "Don't laugh at my body odour. I'll try to do something about it but I don't appreciate you taking the piss at me."

Remus stifled his chuckles by bringing his fist in front of his mouth. "No, you smell lovely, that's not what had me—"

Tonks raised her eyebrows. "I smell lovely, do I?"

Remus felt his neck burn and cleared his throat, ignoring the thoroughly amused expression on the young woman's face. "So, as I was saying— it wasn't the way you smell, but rather your…er…gum."

Tonks forgot all about his comment regarding her smell, and stared. "My gum?"

"Yes, you've been chewing and blowing it up non-stop for the past five minutes."

As he said this the metamorphmegus chewed and blew up another bubble out of habit, before being able to stop herself. She hurried to apologize and to throw the gum away, but struggled to get it off her lips, the pink candy having stuck to them. She licked and licked and Remus had to look away. He swallowed hard.

Tonks noticed but interpreted it as annoyance. "How about a compromise," she suggested, finally succeeding in the disposal of the gum by charming it away, and met Remus's gaze. "I do quite like these pink Droobles but I can tell it must be difficult for you with the noise I make, and since we're to work together it might be best to not piss each other off. So, how about you don't call me Nymphadora, _ever_ , and I won't chew gum."

She didn't phrase it as a question, which led Remus to believe he didn't have a choice in the matter. He already had agreed to never address the young Auror by her given name, but he suspected he was being granted an easy deal and so he took it.

"Great," she said, smiling. Then, as if a thought occurred to her, she asked him, "It's just the gum you mind, right? Not the colour pink?"

Perplexed, Remus shook his head. "No, I have nothing against it. Why?"

"Oh, just wondering," Tonks answered, ambiguously.

She didn't say more and Remus was never one to push, so he let the matter go. It didn't take long for him, though, to figure out what she had meant.

Tonks arrived for their mission the next day in bright, pink hair, and Remus couldn't help but gawk.

"What?" she said. "You said you didn't mind pink."

"You never mentioned pink hair, though."

"Well, I thought this was only fair. My hair is pink and bubblegummy—"

"—don't think that is a real word—"

"—but it's without the annoying popping noise real gum makes," she continued, admiring the way the pink clashed with her dark clothes in the mirror. "Object all you like, but this is happening, Remus Lupin."

She was grinning as she turned to look at him, but something about her words caused tension to arise when their eyes met.

Only a few seconds passed, but to them it felt like an eternity.

Finally, Remus broke the contact and suggested they move, lest they be late for their mission. Tonks gave him a 'Sir, yes, sir' and followed him out the door, but smiled as another idea formed in her head. She looked at the man in front of her and decided that this idea must be her best yet.

Just then, Remus turned and, glancing at her head, said, "You know, it's not too bad." He gave her an almost playful smile, a remnant from his Marauder days she'd heard so much about from her cousin.

Tonks touched her fingers to her hair, and blushed.

 _All right, perhaps second best idea_ , she thought, and walked up to him, but not before stumbling on a cobblestone in the process.

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~o0o~

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A/N: Hope you enjoyed this little Tonks and Remus one-shot! I wanted to find something explaining why she chose to wear the pink bubblegum hair in the books so much. Sure, she might have just liked the color . . . but this is much more fun. Haha!

Please leave a review with your thoughts!

/Primrue


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